One Kitchen Cabinet Down

We registered for Pilsner glasses for our wedding. We also registered for wine glasses (red and white), everyday glasses, tumblers, and coffee cups and saucers, but the Pilsner glasses are what embarrass us the most. We drink Coronas, rarely, and lick the salt off the bottles. Our Mexican beer has a direct line of travel from the bottle to the gullet.

I do not know how many drinking glasses and average family of four needs, but I know they do not need Pilsner glasses.

They do not need twenty three coffee mugs, either, but our kitchen cabinet suggested otherwise.

I decided 16 glasses is enough for a family of four. I based this decision on research and the fact that glasses I bought came in sets of 16 (eight high balls and eight tumblers). If I am wrong, I will buy another set. I also kept three novelty glasses the boys love and 8 coffee mugs. The coffee cups and saucers from our original wedding set remain, but they will go soon.

I wrapped up with newspaper enough glasses and mugs to fill a large moving box. I did end up commandeering the very bottom shelf of this cabinet instead of the corner cabinet shelf.

I loved Deanna’s suggestion to buy a lazy Susan and was pleased to see they now come in 18″ diameter. I do not love that it is white plastic, but the functionality far outweighs the form in this case.

This area of my kitchen feels so good now. I need to remember the impact small projects can have in the home. I should have done this sooner!

They are pretty, but even just 4 of them take up a lot of room and generally when we’re having margaritas, they are frozen and in a red solo cup at a party! I have them in the unreachable cabinet above the fridge, but when the day comes that we move, they will not be making the trip to a new house! I do need to cull the coffee mugs a bit but the real issue is the water bottles in my house. Half of them are those giant Gatorade bottles which are hard to fit in a cabinet. The kids use them all the time though so there’s that.

Susan, we also have a lot of water bottles of various sizes and materials that we use regularly. My solution was an over-the-door shoe holder (the type with pockets made of lightweight mesh) on the inside of a closet door next to the kitchen. The bottles and lids fit well, you can see the one you want, they don’t fall over, and they are out of the way. It’s worked well for us for the past few years.

What is it with coffee mugs? Are they like the bunnies of the kitchen? We are a family of 5, but I’m the only coffee/tea drinker. We used to have a TON of mugs, and I pared them down to 7 (now 6, oops…the counters are hard). The cupboard looks FANTASTIC.

Ah, the pilsner glasses. We also registered for them. We knew we would become “those people” who have a frosty pilsner glass, ready from the freezer, when friends came over for a beer. Might have happened twice. Who has space for pilsner glasses in the freezer? We purged them about two moves ago.

I pared down to four coffee mugs, plus two decorative ones that the kids use for hot chocolate occasionally. My husband and I drink coffee everyday but there’s no reason we can’t just rinse one and use it again the next day. I’ve never had more than two overnight guests who want coffee.

Anyone who has ever worked in education has a mountain of mugs that accumulates through the years. I think you could dertermine how long someone has been in education by looking in their kitchen cabinets! I reduced my total substantially as each kid went off to college apartments. Now all have graduated, and I am noticing that my mug supply has regenerated.

We rarely drink beer but we use our Pilsner glasses all spring and summer for ice coffee or iced tea (herbal or not), or iced fruit juice or just water :) In Greece where I live, a lot of people do this.
As teachers, we have lots of mugs too (but less than you had) and some have been repurposed to hold tiny plants or pencils, etc. I do agree that it is pointless to have more items than needed. Well done :)